Lionheart Retro Series iRacing Race Report New Hampshire

Round 2 of the Lionheart Retro series in iRacing visited New Hampshire for the next Level 150, producing another great race and victory.

With the series well underway, round 2 of the Lionheart Retro Series in iRacing visited New Hampshire for a stunning performance by many drivers and a victory that was pure domination. Here we have the full race report for the Lionheart Retro Series Next Level Racing 150 presented by Buttkicker.

Written by Darren B of simrace247.com

Qualifying

Before the race kicks off, qualifying was up and ready for a quick fire session to assert the starting positions on the starting grid.

1. #20 Fowler: 25.010
2. #45 O’Brien: +0.037
3. #19 Ragan: +0.104
4. #7 Hardin: +0.113
5. #8 Taylor: +0.119

Race Start For Round 2 Of The Lionheart Retro Series

Here we go, green light and away they go, Fowler gets a great start as he gets some distance back to O’Brien and Ragan. A clean start by the whole field as the laps start to click off, Fowler has opened an impressive gap up front, with the yellow flag coming out on lap 5 as Daniels looks to appear to have his car wedged into the catch fence and Wardlow’s car upside down in the middle of the track.

Replay footage shows Wardlow tagging the back of Forsythe’s car sending Wardlow into a spin and Daniels has nowhere to go, other than the catch fence. Some cars drop into pitlane under yellow and take on fuel.

Lap 9 And We Are Back To Green Flag Racing

As the laps pass by, we see the cars starting to dominate for position with great battles going on throughout the pack. Fowler is maintaining his lead after the restart with O’Brien and Ragan following suit. Morgan is creeping up the order sitting in P5 with Taylor and Hardin on either side on positions.

Rasimas is looking racey in P8 and having a great battle with Frazier in P7 with constant green flag racing. The nerves have settled for many and simrace247 driver Nunez has got his elbows out and looking good in P18, Lionheart Racing Series Jorge Anzaldo is sitting in P10 and looking good.

Lap 41 Yellow Flag

After a great number of laps under green flag racing, Roberts and Snider make a small amount of contact going into turn 3, sending Roberts into the wall. With the yellow flag out, a big majority of the field enters pit road and takes on fresh tires. At the end of lap 46, the pace car peels away and we are back to racing.

Lap 50 top 10

1. Fowler
2. O’Brien
3. Taylor
4. Morgan
5. Ragan
6. Hardin
7. Rasimas
8. Frazier
9. Gibson
10. Schofield

What has Fowler had for breakfast, he just seems to pull away with ease at the front and led every single lap, this is impressive. This is one of those races where there is so much action throughout the pack, no one wants to submit a position to a rival as it is tricky to pass at this circuit. The front runners are beginning to open up some gaps between the main pack with the top 5 covered by 5 seconds.

Lap 93

By lap 93, race leader Fowler starts to lap cars, so far so good as he sythes his way through and not getting caught up in other racers battles. By lap 96, Fowler enters pit road, with others following over a duration of laps. The switch up on the leader board starts to go crazy as the pit phase is in full effect. LAP 102 sees an incident going into pit road as Hardin and Ragan make contact, that will be one for the stewards to sort out as Ragan spins out.

After the shakeup of positions when the pit phase was going on, the order reasserts itself and fowler is back in the lead, with O’Brien in P2 and morgan upto P3. Jorge Anzaldo has moved up to P7 and looking good.

30 Laps To Go

These are the times when we start to see the drivers get a bit more brave and risky, the race overall has been clean with minimal yellow flags.  Snider and Guyon are having a great battle for p17. Out front Morgan in P3 has got the magnets on to the back of O’Briens car and reeling him in. Fowler is in another state at the moment, he is 2.5 seconds out ahead in P1 and commanding this race.

Jenkins kisses the wall on lap 120, damage to the car and he decides to bring it home slowly to pit road, a note on that is how he was disciplined to not let others get caught up in the situation whilst bringing it to pit road, great stuff. Morgan takes P2 on lap 130, Fowler smells victory, all he needs to do is maintain pace and keep it clean with lapped cars, but keep an eye on Morgan, he is not going to give up as he is closing in on fowler who is 2 seconds up the road.

8 to go and Morgan is piling on the pressure, the hunt is on, Fowler needs to keep his cool as Morgan is closing, now 1.8 behind. Rasimas takes P3 from O’Brien with 5 to go, Anzaldo in p7 is loading up a move on Hardin, 4 to go. Tires are working for many, and others are falling off the cliff, Anzaldo flys by Taylor and up to P5.

Victory For Chris Fowler

Speaking in HyperX victory lane, Fowler goes on to mention “Finally I get a win!” after an impressive drive from him. Speaking about race strategy ” I knew I could not do a double stint on the right front tire, there was no way I could have done that, so I played it safe”. With Fowler driving in all the series races, his momentum and morale will be high after this great victory.

Finish	Team	Driver	Start	Laps	Laps Down	Laps Led	Inc	Pts	Bonuses/Penalties
1	#20-Mad Werx Motorsports	Chris Fowler	1	142		137	0	63	(+1) Start on overall pole (+1) Led a lap (+1) 0 or less Incidents
2	#24-AAR W/ GRAAFix LC	Aaron Morgan	6	142		1	0	57	(+1) Led a lap (+1) 0 or less Incidents
3	#68-GRAAFix LC Motorsports	Mike Rasimas	10	142		2	0	52	(+1) Led a lap (+1) 0 or less Incidents
4	#45-Mad Werx Motorsports	Michael A O’Brien	2	142		0	0	48	(+1) 0 or less Incidents
5	#6-Raven Lavoie Motorsports	Jorge Anzaldo	13	142		0	0	46	(+1) 0 or less Incidents
6	#98-GRAAFix LC Motorsports	Tyler J Graaf	19	142		0	0	44	(+1) 0 or less Incidents
7	#7-Raven Motorsports Silver	Ricky Hardin	4	142		0	4	41
8	#8-Mad Werx Motorsports	Matt Taylor	5	142		0	0	40	(+1) 0 or less Incidents
9	#66-Independent	Matthew Schofield	7	142		0	1	37
10	#96-Independent	Chris Staples	11	142		0	0	36	(+1) 0 or less Incidents